sufficient to establish the title. The revocation of the charter to De Monts gave priority to the grant of King James, covering the same territory, and this formal act of possession was ever after upheld, by an assertion of the title by Gorges. It was sufficient, effectually, to hold the country against the French and Spaniards alike.* When Argall, in 1613, destroyed the French settlement at Mount Desert, † the French Minister demanded satisfaction at the hands of the British nation. But no notice was taken of this *The Spanish Secretary of State in 1612 and 1613 complained to King James for allowing his subjects to plant in Virginia and Bermuda, as the country belonged to Spain, by the conquest of Castile who acquired it by the discovery of Columbus, and the Pope's donation; to which Sir Dudley Carleton, Secretary of State, by order of King James made answer: "Spain has no possessions north of Florida. They belong to the crown of England by right of discovery and actual possession by the two English colonies thither deducted, whereof the latter is yet there remaining. These countries should not be given over to the Spanish." Cal. of Col. State Papers, vol. i. p. 14, Nos. 28 and 29; also page 16, Nos. 31 and 32. In the memorials of the English and French Commission concerning the limits of Nova-Scotia or Acadia, under the Treaty of Utrecht, the French Commissioners say: "The Court of France adjudged that they had the right to extend the western limits of Acadia as far as the River Kinnibequi," (p. 39.) On page 98 of the same Collections it says: "Chief-Justice Popham planted the colony at Sagadahoc." + MOUNT DESERT was so named by Champlain in 1605. The English named it Mount Mansell, in honor of Sir Robert Mansell, the highest naval officer of England, one of the grantees of the Virginia Company of 1609, and of the New-England Company in 1620. But it has retained the name of Mount Desert. It has always been celebrated for the excellence of its harbor and the boldness of its shores. It is the most celebrated locality on the Atlantic coast, and one of the three great harbors of the continent. The French Jesuits, who settled there in 1613, called it St. Saviour. Their precise place of settlement is described in the Relations of the Jesuits, vol. i. p. 44, 46, and has been identified by the accurate explorations of the Hon. E. L. Hamlin, of Bangor, the present year. In Poor's Vindication of Gorges, Appendix, page 103, is a translation of the Jesuit Relation, describing this place, and of its destruction by Argall. What is of still more interest is the fact that this was the easternmost limits of Mavosheen, or of the English discoveries up to 1609. See Purchase, vol. iv. p. 1873. L'Escarbot, the historian of New-France and of De Monts' expedition, says the Sagamo Marchin was residing at their next place west of Kinnibequi, and they named the place Marchin, (Portland,) in honor of him. Marchin was slain in 1607, and Bessabes was chosen captain in his place. Bessabes was slain also, and then Asticou was chosen in his stead. According to the statement in Purchase, vol. iv. p. 1873-4, at the easternmost part of Mavosheen, at the river of Quibiquesson, dwelt Asticou. In 1613, Asticou was dwelling at Mount Desert, and the assurance given by his followers to Fathers Biard and Masse of his being sick and desirous of baptism at their hands, led them to go thither, and finally to yield to entreaties for making their settlement there, instead of at Kadesquit, (Kenduskeag,) Bangor, on the Penobscot, as they had agreed in 1611. It would seem from these facts that the authority of Asticou extended from Mount Desert to the Saco, the river of the Sagamo Olmouchin. Calendar of Colonial State Papers, vol. i. p. 15. demand, because the French could show no claim of title. Again in 1624, M. Tillieres, the French Ambassador, claimed the territory of New-England as a portion of New-France, and proposed to yield all claim to Virginia, and the country as far south as the Gulf of Mexico; overlooking entirely the title of Spain to Florida, which had always been recognized as extending to the thirty-third parallel of north latitude. France had at this time become aware of the importance of securing the title and possession of these shores.* King James called on Sir Ferdinando Gorges to prepare a reply to the claims of the French monarch. "Whereunto," says Gorges, "I made so full a reply (as it seems) there was no more heard of their claim." + From the abstract of this reply, recently printed in the Calendar of British State Papers, it would seem that no notice was taken of the Leyden flock, who were then at Plymouth; but Sir Ferdinando Gorges based the claim of his government on the ground of the charter of 1606, and the formal occupation of the country under it, with a continued claim of title. In 1631, Champlain, the greatest mind of his nation, ever engaged in colonial enterprise, the boldest and most wary of all his countrymen, second only to Gorges in the results he achieved, in his memoir to his sovereign, as to the title of the two nations, says: "King James issued his charter twenty-four years ago, for the country from the thirty-third to the forty-fifth degree. England seized the coast of New-France, where lies Acadia, on which they imposed the name of NewEngland." + The Dutch West-India Company, in their address * Cal. of Col. State Papers, vol. i. p. 60. to the States General, 1632, say: "In the year 1606, his Majesty of Great Britain granted to his subjects, under the names of New-England and Virginia, north and south of the river, (Manhattoes,) on express condi tion that the companies should remain one hundred miles apart. Whereupon the English began, about the year 1607, to settle by the river of Sagadahoc. The English place New-England between the forty-first and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude."* In Garneau's History of Canada, speaking of the destruction of Mount Desert, and Port Royal, in 1613, he says: "England claimed the territory to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude." This was seven years before the date of the New-England Charter. This claim was founded on possession; for England stoutly maintained, from the time of Elizabeth onward, that without possession there was no valid title to a newly discovered country. This view of history is overlooked by Puritan writers, and those who follow their authority. That protection of the British nation which enabled the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay, and the humble followers of Robinson, to establish, unmolested, homes in the New World, under organized forms of government, was grudgingly acknowledged by them, and the man who secured to them these blessings, and watched over them with the same jealous care as of his own colony they always stigmatized as their great enemy,t because, among other acts of humanity, he allowed the mild and conscientious men, who could not yield implicit obedience to their fierce doctrines, and more barbarous laws, † to escape into Maine, and there remain * Holland Doc. N. Y., p. 61. + Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 14; Bradford's Hist. of Plymouth, p. 328. None but church members shall be allowed the privileges of freemen.-Statute of 1631, Massachusetts Colony Laws, p. 117. unharmed. When Cromwell granted to Sir Thomas Temple the country east of the Sagadahoc, at the time that the persecution of the Quakers was at its greatest height, with the design of affording them a place of refuge beyond the limits even of the Province of Maine, which they had just conquered by violence; the anger of Massachusetts Puritans fell upon the head of the Protector, himself a Puritan, and an Independent of the straitest sect at home. But time allows no allusion to-day to historic details, except what is essential to the vindication of the truth of history. The fact that the 19th of August, Old Style, is the true date of the foundation of England's title to the continent, is all we are called upon to establish. It may be said, that in giving this prominence to the occupation of the country by the colony of Popham, we overlook other events of importance in establishing the English title-the possession of the Elizabeth Isles by Gosnold in 1602, and the settlement of Jamestown May 13th, 1607, prior to the landing of the Popham Colony at Sagadahoc. In reference to the occupation of Elizabeth Isles by Any attempt to change the form of government is punishable with death.-Statute of 1641, Col. Laws, p. 59. Absence from meeting on Sunday, fast, or thanksgiving, subjected the offender to a fine.-Col. Laws, p. 103. Keeping or observing Christmas was punishable by fine.-Col. Laws, p. 119. Wages to be regulated in each town by vote of the freemen of each.-Col. Laws, p. 156. Baptists are to be punished by banishment.-Colony Laws, 1646, p. 120. Quakers to be imprisoned and then banished, on pain of death if they returned. Colony Laws, 1658, p. 123. Witches shall be put to death-Colony Laws, 1641, p. 59. Magistrates shall issue warrants to a constable, and in his absence to any person, to cause Quakers to be stripped naked from the middle upward; tied to a cart's tail, and whipped from town to town till conveyed out of our jurisdiction.-Colony Laws, p. 125. Under these laws Baptists had their ears cropped in Boston as late as 1658, and Quakers were put to death. *N. Y. Doc. Hist. vol. ix. p. 71, 75. Gosnold, it is sufficient to say, that it was prior to the date of the Royal Charter, and consequently of no legal effect in establishing title. As to the settlement of Jamestown, it was south of the fortieth parallel of latitude, and therefore did not come in conflict with the French King's prior charter to De Monts. The territory between the fortieth and the forty-fifth degrees only, was in dispute. Although the maps of the time made New-France to extend from the thirty-third to the fiftieth degree of north latitude, France practically abandoned the country south of the fortieth degree from the time of the grant of the charter to De Monts, so that below that line south, it was open to any people who might have the courage to possess it; this south line of De Monts' grant, intersecting what is now Pennsylvania, just north of the city of Philadelphia, cutting Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois very nearly in their centre. Had there been no English settlement or occupancy north of the fortieth parallel of latitude prior to 1610, when Poutrincourt obtained a new grant of Acadia, the whole country north of that line must have fallen into the hands of the French. The reason, undoubtedly, why France at this time extended her claims no further south than the fortieth parallel was, a fear of exciting the jealousy and hostility of the Spaniards. In 1562, when Ribaut and Laudonniere planted at Port Royal, Spain looked upon it as an invasion of her just domain, and promptly expelled the French invaders. Recent discoveries show that she watched with a most jealous eye the fate of the earlier voyages of Cartier from 1534 to 1541.* Spain, at that time, was the great military and naval power of Europe. There can be no doubt that the limiting of De Monts' charter to the fortieth parallel of latitude, seven degrees * See Historical Magazine, January, 1862, p. 14. |